The preserved flower petal and pollen of a novel ancient blossoming species have been find in mid - Tertiary amber from the Dominican Republic . harmonise to determination published inNature Plantsthis workweek , these are the first neotropical flowers found in gold from a representative of the asterids – one of today ’s most various industrial plant grouping with over 80,000 species ranging from peppers and potatoes to sunflowers , mint , and burnt umber .
Amber is the fossilized resin of ancient Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree . When small insects or other organisms become trapped in resin before it solidify , they stay mostly unchanged for gazillion of eld in the amber that results . While Dominican amber has prove to be a rich source of vascular plant stay , no fossilized examples of asterids from been reported until now .
Oregon State University’sGeorge PoinarandLena Struweof Rutgers University studied flowers encased in two separate slice of amber fromHymenaea proteratrees from a mine in the Cordillera Septentrional peck kitchen range between Puerto Plata and Santiago on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola . A neotropical Caribbean forest existed there in the mid - Tertiary period , long before the North and South American continents were link by the Panama land bridge .
The preserved heyday , which were less than a cm long , lie of a trumpet - shaped fused petal ( or corolla ) tube , recurve petal lobes , the stamen and small anther with global pollen , and a tenacious , protruding style . The flower belong to the genusStrychnos , like theStrychnos nux - vomicatree , from which venomous strychnine is extracted . The twosome advert the newfangled speciesStrychnos electri , which refers to “ elektron , ” the Hellenic word for gold . Because precise dating of Dominican gold is difficult , the squad turned to two different type of evidence that suggest the fossils formed as recently as 15 million to 20 million old age ago or as prospicient as 30 million to 45 million eld ago .
Strychnos electriprovides evidence that extremely derived asterid groups were already present in neotropical wood by the mid - 3rd , advise that many other congenator of modern New World asterids had also evolved by this time , though their cadaver have yet to be find .
The fused petal tube , vogue , and anthers visible in the rima oris of the flower of Strychnos electri . George Poinar
